Russert recalled as effective journalist

Sister Joan Chittister in her National Catholic Reporter column "From Where I Stand" this week mourns the loss not only of the late Tim Russert, but also his skills and the social consequences of his use of them.

"Tim Russert was trying ... to make citizens out of voters, thinkers out of listeners," Chittister writes. "He was trying to form a real democracy rather than simply throw pottage at herds of politicized sheep.

"He was not sensational, not confrontational, not destructive," she continues. "He was a real thinker. He was a real political philosopher for the age. A real journalist."

High praise for a guy who earned it.

Read the whole piece here -- http://ncrcafe.org/node/1914

'When journalists hate journalism...'

Online Journalism Review may be folding soon, but Robert Niles there posted a terrific analysis of the deep divide between journalism and television.

Taken with insightful comments to the posting, it offers positives and negatives about TV, traditional journalism and the loss of public service in a press mission that somehow drifted into Profits Uber Alles.

Check out Niles' piece here -- http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/robert/200806/1497/

3 WIU grads accepted to UIS' PAR program

Three accomplished journalists who graduated from Western in May were accepted into the prestigious Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois-Springfield, director Charlie Wheeler said.

Journalism majors Jason Nevel and Drew Thomason and broadcasting major/Journalism minor Alex Degman will make up 15% of the 20-student program.

The one-year program combines classroom coursework and internships with professional news operations covering the Illinois General Assembly and state government. Grad students earn Master's degrees upon completion of the program.

Nevel was editor of the Western Courier, Thomason the Courier's web editor, and Degman a student reporter for WIUM-FM 91.3.

Essayist picked by Western SPJ wins national award

An Aurora high schooler picked by Western's Society of Professional Journalists chapter and WIU faculty as winner of the Midwest Region's High School Essay Contest also won the national award, SPJ announced.

Mark Brouch of Aurora Central Catholic High School won a $1,000 scholarship in the annual competition, which this year had the thme "Why Free News Media Are Important."